


Infirmary Woes

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Cute, F/F, Humor, Older Characters, Pining, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 07:12:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11823756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: Diana is 17, she has one more year of school and then her entire life in front of her. Too bad the pressure is finally getting to her.Diana ends up in Luna Nova’s infirmary, Akko goes to keep her company





	Infirmary Woes

**Author's Note:**

> hey, I already posted this once lol, but it wasn't properly edited so now I'm publishing it again with a beta (thanks Aeriallingist!) and a better eye, it's broken up into parts for my editing sanity too

It was a lot of pressure.

Diana would never have said anything like that out loud, even to her horse, or herself. But she dimly recognized it as a given fact, like memorizing the year of the death of Mary Queen of Scots (1587) or the defining battles in the Hundreds Year War (Agincourt).

She knew them, she made flashcards, she wrote them on tests, it was dry tasteless numbers, faces, and dates she lumped together with the category of ‘things I know.’

She knew it was a lot of pressure. She was Diana Cavendish, it was a given. 

However, the Battle of Agincourt didn’t have the power to affect her eating, sleeping, or showering patterns. And perhaps the other one did, she was mildly surprised when her hands started to shake slightly in the mornings. She was mildly surprised when she started charming her face every morning to smile a little more and hide the bags under her eyes.

It was her 11th year and she only had one more to go until she was onto her next task: college, bloodline, prestige, family, giving back to the world- everything she was born to. 

Diana told herself she was ready, told herself things like migraines and hours spent tracing the ceiling with her eyes was a given, a temporary given.

Perhaps Finnelan was right and it was simply puberty, everyone was always going on about puberty. Her classmates and her would ‘all go through a lot of changes’ in the body and mind, she might have a lot of ‘emotional fluctuation.’ Diana personally thought that the only emotional fluctuation she was going through was how to sit through this kind of lecture again.

Oh, and she was also supposed to get stupid over crushes and the appeal of boys would somehow find the decency to spike.

Diana scoffed at the idea.

It wasn’t all something a little 'anti-clammy hands' spell couldn’t fix and a proper disposition, she was British, she understood one shouldn’t underestimate the power of proper disposition in the face of things like death, decay, war, and puberty. 

It worked for her so far, but maybe she should have seen it coming, she thought of herself as a woman of the world after all, and nothing in this world works forever.

It was a temporary inconvenience when she stood up after breakfast one Monday morning and felt her head swim, her fingers twitch, and the world capsizes like a poorly made ship.

She fell to the floor in a blur of spinning shapes and weak knees. It was troublesome to say the least, embarrassing.

Victorian women in tight dresses and bad dramatic situations faint, Diana Cavendish did not. She did not fall headlong onto the tiled floor and watch stars burst from behind her eyes. She did not feel the electric spark through her system and a numbness spread throughout her fingertips.

Diana did not have a magical nervous breakdown.

But unfortunately, sometimes, she did. 

\------------

Something between gray mush and charred wood was the first thing she tasted when she woke up. She felt something dreary and sparking in her system, like a muggy damp day in Manchester during an electrical surge. 

Her nerves felt like a series of bee stings and she has to flex her toes a couple times before she can feel them.

Diana frowns slowly at the curtains surrounding her bed, the woolen red blankets were pulled up to her chin and the colors seemed washed out and fuzzy like an old TV program image quality.

It took a moment for her to process that this was the school's infirmary.

Cream colored curtains hung densely around the simple bed and the bedside table held a glass of water and what appeared to be an ordinary Tylenol pill.

Diana sat up stiltedly, she flinches as she feels her nerves complaining at her like poorly calibrated computer connectors. Something was wrong, she grunts softly at the very effort of sitting up, something was very wrong.

Diana is only half-way through creaking heavily upward when she sees the curtain to her right sweep away and the broad round face of Nurse Koli looking down at her. Diana freezes in place and tries to present her most composed smile.

‘ _ I didn’t just collapse on my way to Charms _ ’ says her warmed afternoon tea smile.

“Good morning Nurse Koli,” Diana says pleasantly.

Nurse Koli raises one eyebrow, “It is afternoon Miss Cavendish.”

 

Diana tenses and pushes one loose hair behind her ear, “of course.”

Nurse Koli frowns slightly at her, “how are you feeling?” She sits down and Diana is surprised to see her taking out a stethoscope.

Diana sat up straight, “Feeling well now. I suppose I’ve been studying rather late recently, I think it was just a random bout of dizziness from that. I’ll be more careful in the future.” She smiles again, Nurse Koli was raising both of her eyebrows now.

“Breath in,” Nurse Koli listens to Diana’s lungs and then her heart, she breathes in slowly as instructed, the nurses watches her.

Diana cleared her throat, “perhaps you could just perform a Peace of Mind charm or a small remedy spell, I’m sure I’ll be fine. Nothing to worry about.”

Nurse Koli inspected some red little streaks across Diana’s forearm and then nods at them shortly. 

“It’s a quick one.” Diana contributes, she herself had been using a few Peace of Mind charm for months now. The spell staved off most frantic thoughts and brought her a type of calm- if not a vague sense of time and poor sleeping habits.

Nurse Koli shook her head, “you have magic poisoning Miss Diana. We can’t do that.

Diana balls up her hands in the sheets until they’re fists, “what’s that now?” She asked as if she hadn’t rightly heard her.

“Magic poisoning, Miss Cavendish. It happens after a large amount of overexposure.”

Diana clenched her jaw, “There must be some mistake, it was simply a bad spill. I was studying too hard, had had...lady problems?” She offers weakly, adults usually sympathized with whatever puberty was.

Nurse Koli tilted her head, “the evidence is here,” she points at Diana’s wrist where the reddish kind of burn was forming on the surface, “you’ve been overexposed to a constant stream of spells, tell me, how many spells have you used on yourself per day?” 

Diana did not like the look Nurse Koli was giving her, she did not like the nakedness of it at all. She musters a final relaxed posture, “one or two. A girl needs a hair curl spell now and then, but no more than the average student.”

“One or two?”  Diana just shrugs, “this is serious overdose, Miss Diana.” 

Diana looks away, “it was random. I’ll be more careful later, I promise.”

Nurse Koli shakes her head, “I’ve seen this before- for overachievers like you.” Diana narrows her eyes and Koli gives her a steady look, “they give themselves an overdose for the sake of something and their body starts to shut down.” Her eyes go wide, Koli puts a hand up, “no magic for at least a week. And no strenuous activity either.”

Diana opens her mouth to protest, throwing the covers off and kneeling forward, “I have a test in astrology class!” Her mind races. “I have a quiz in advanced potions.”

Nurse Koli stands up and re-adjusts her skirt, “I know, which is why I’m requesting you stay here for the duration.” She hands her the Tylenol.

Diana scowls indignantly, “Why?” She almost hisses, Diana Cavendish hissing. Maybe she really was losing it.

Nurse Koli looks her up and down, “you are truly an extraordinary witch Diana.” Diana was more accustomed to those words than this whole affair, “and that’s why I can’t trust you to not use magic without supervision.”

Diana opens her mouth again but Nurse Koli puts her hand up, “I’ll get you some more juice and re-hydrators, your electrolytes are severely depleted.” She puts her wide hand on her shoulder, “it will only be a week.”

Diana frowns, “I really can’t afford a weak you know, this really isn’t any trouble, I’m sure Professor Finnelan will agree with me.”

“Trust me,” Nurse Koli stands up on grating knees, “I’ve been talking to Professor Finnelan. She has a lot to say about taking you out of classes for now.” Koli drags the curtains back and Diana squints into the light. 

“And what did you say back?” 

She gives a deep sigh, “Diana, I don’t think you want to lose your fine motor skills or anymore feeling in your toes.”

That certainly made Diana pause and stare ahead of herself blankly, sightlessly, Nurse Koli closes the curtain.

Overexposure.

All Diana can do is look at the lines on her hands, the forming rash, like rug burn or skid marks across irritated pale skin.

Diana takes a deep breath, “and Nurse Koli,” she calls weakly, she hated how small her voice sounds. Nurse Koli peaked back in, Diana shrinks ever so slightly, “can you not let any visitors in?”

“Someone already tried to get in,” Koli says slowly and Diana’s mouth makes an ‘o.’

“I’m sure Hannah and Barbara can be...distracted.” Diana figured she’d just tell them to go find a door with no hinges and no knob that still opens. That might keep them busy.

Koli shakes her head, “If you think you can stop someone like Miss Kagari I’m open to suggestions.”   
  
Diana blinked a couple times, “Oh.” She drew her knees up to her chin, “is she...concerned?” She felt her skin prickle as she spoke. Maybe she was sick if she asked that out loud.

Nurse Koli put her hands on her hips, “she said she’s going to find whoever did this, make you more cheered up than you ever have been before, and then be the best witch in the school. Or history. That was unclear.”   
  
Diana hides her face and nods into her hands. “Tell her I’m deposed.”

Koli turned around again, “she left you a half-filled in coloring book from when she had the flu.”   
  
Diana stared blankly on ahead, “right.”

Koli left and Diana keeps staring, Akko was concerned and Diana tucks a coloring book on dogs into her bedside table. She tells herself that she was English, she could face plagues, puberty, and girls with nice hair and pretty eyes trying to see her.

She had the disposition for this.

She hopes.


End file.
